The NIH FOIA Staff welcomes you to the NIH
FOIA Home Page. We hope you will find this site informative and
that it will give you a better understanding of NIH's public information
programs. We will continue to improve this site to bring you current
program information.

requests for information that will not be released because
it is protected by one or more of the FOIA's nine exemptions
or three exclusions

While all requests may be sent to the NIH FOIA Office,
each of NIH's separate Institutes and Centers has its own FOIA
Coordinator. Requesters should direct requests for information
about a specific NIH component to that component. A
list of the FOIA Coordinators for each component is available
at this site for your convenience.

require agencies to establish electronic
reading rooms that include agency policies, staff manuals,
opinions made in the adjudication of cases, and an index of
records released by FOIA that are likely to become the subject
of subsequent FOIA requests.

Guide for Submitting FOIA Requests

Before submitting FOIA requests, individuals should ensure that
the information they seek is not already in the public domain.
Each of NIH's components has information available in both published
format and electronically. A search of the NIH Home Page can assist
requesters in locating information and lists of available publications.
Such a search can also help requesters identify the component(s)
most likely to have responsive documents so FOIA requests can be
sent to the appropriate component for response. A list of the NIH
Institutes and Centers is available at this site to assist
you. A list of the FOIA Coordinators for
each component also is available at this site for your convenience.
FOIA requesters interested in obtaining information on federally
funded biomedical research projects should consult the Computer
Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects (CRISP) database.
This will enable requesters to identify the grant number and the
component funding the research in their FOIA request.

In 1999 the Office of Management and Budget issued final revisions
to Circular A110 to provide for access to data produced under grants
awarded by the National Institutes of Health and other federal
awarding agencies. To the extent you are interested in requesting
data produced under a National Institutes of Health grant pursuant
to the provisions of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Revised
Circular A110, please understand that the provisions of Revised
Circular A110 apply to data:

first produced under a new or competing continuing grant awarded
after the Department of Health and Human Services amended 45
C.F.R. 74 to incorporate the changes mandated by the Revised
Circular (April 17, 2000); and

cited publicly and officially by the Federal Government in
support of an agency action that has the force and effect of
law.

In addition, if the data you request are already available to
the public through an archive or other source, we will not process
your request under the FOIA. In that situation, we will refer you
to the archive or other source.

With all FOIA requests, if the information you are interested
in is not in the public domain, please follow the suggestions listed
below when preparing your FOIA request:

identify the records requested (be as specific as possible,
i.e., describe the subject matter of the records, and, if known,
indicate the dates of the records, the places where they originated,
and the names of the originating persons or offices);

state that the records are requested under the Freedom of Information
Act;

include daytime telephone numbers in case additional information
is needed before answering requests; and

forward all requests either to the appropriate FOIA Coordinator or
to the NIH FOIA Office by one of the methods listed below:

if you are requesting data produced under an NIH grant, include
the following information in your request:

the federal regulation or administrative order that cited
the data being requested;

the publication and/or reference cited in the federal regulation;

the grant number under which the data were produced (this
information can be obtained from the CRISP database;

a description of the data sought; and

a statement that the data are being requested under OMB
Revised Circular A110.

Mail the request (mark the outside of the envelope, "FOIA Request")
either to the appropriate FOIA Coordinator or to the NIH
FOIA Office:

If the requester knows which component has responsive documents,
the FOIA request should be sent directly to the FOIA Coordinator for
that component. A list of the FOIA Coordinators for
NIH components and their addresses is included at this site.

Individuals with questions concerning their requests may contact
the FOIA Coordinator to whom they sent their request or the NIH
FOIA Office at 301-496-5633. Requesters may also contact the appropriate FOIA
Requester Service Center or FOIA Public Liaison with questions
or for a status update of their request.

Requests for Grants and Contract documents:

If you are requesting a copy of a funded grant application or
an awarded contract with associated documents, you should understand
that NIH routinely redacts certain information from those documents
before we release them. More information about these routine redactions
can be found at this site. Just click on the type of document that
interests you: grants or contracts.

Guide for Submitting FOIA Appeals

FOIA requesters may appeal the denial of information within 30 days
of receipt of letters from the agency. Appeals should state the following
information:

the reasons why the requested information should be released
under the Act; and

why the denial may be in error.

FOIA requesters should attach copies of their original requests
and response letters to all appeals, clearly mark the letters and
the outside envelopes, "FOIA Appeal, " and mail appeals to the
following address:

Fees

The Freedom of Information Act provides for
the agency to recover part of the cost associated with responding
to a request. The Department Regulations set
out the specific rules for fees and for requesting a fee waiver or
a reduction in fees. Some general principles apply to all requests
such as:

if you are going to request a fee waiver or a reduction in
fees, you must do so when you file your initial request for documents.

you may be charged for search time even if we do not locate
any documents responsive to your request or if the documents
we locate are denied to you under one of the FOIA's exemptions.

there will not be a charge if the cost of responding to your
request is less than $25.

If a determination is made that fees will be charged, the following
fee schedule will be used to calculate the exact cost of search
and review time:

if the work is performed by an agency employee Grade 1-8, you
will be charged $5.50 for each 15 minutes worked.

if the work is performed by an agency employee Grade 9-14,
you will be charged $11.25 for each 15 minutes worked.

if the work is performed by an agency employee Grade 15 or
above, you will be charged $20.25 for each 15 minutes worked.

In addition, if you are requesting data produced under a NIH grant
under the provisions of OMB Revised Circular A110, you will be
charged a reasonable fee equaling the full incremental cost of
obtaining the data. This fee will reflect the costs incurred by
NIH, the grantee institution and the grantee investigator. These
fees will be in addition to any fees assessed by NIH under the
FOIA.

FOIA Requester Service Centers and FOIA
Public Liaisons

Requesters may have questions or want to know the status of their
request. All questions about a pending request, including those for
a status may be directed to the FOIA Coordinator to whom the request
was submitted. In addition, NIH and each of its components has a
FOIA Requester Service Center available to answer questions or to
provide a status regarding a pending request. For more efficient
service, questions and inquiries should be directed to the Service
Center contact for the NIH component to which the request was submitted.
A complete listing of the FOIA Requester
Service Center contacts is available at this site. If, after
contacting the appropriate FOIA Requester Service Center, a requester
wants more information about a request, NIH and each component also
has a FOIA Public Liaison who is available to provide information
regarding FOIA requests. The listing of the FOIA
Public Liaisons is included with the listing of FOIA
Requester Service Center contacts.

Exemptions

The Freedom of Information Act provides that
the agency will provide access to identifiable documents within our
possession unless one of nine exemptions or three exclusions applies.
The exact language of the exemptions can be found in the Freedom
of Information Act. Additional guidance on the exemptions and
how they apply to certain documents can be found in the Department
Regulations implementing the FOIA.

NIH Reading Rooms

On-Site Reading Room

The NIH On-Site Reading Room (RR) contains a variety of
documents that come from several of the Institutes
and Centers at the NIH. The documents are indexed with an identifying
number to assist users in locating the document(s) of interest. The
Index of Documents is available at this site for your convenience.
Documents cited with an asterisk (*) are available for viewing
in the RR, which is located in Building 31, Room 5B-35.
The hours of operation are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through
Friday (closed on Federal holidays). A copy machine is available
for users to duplicate documents of particular interest. Documents
without an asterisk are presently stored off-site and can be retrieved
for viewing upon specific request. Please contact the FOI Office
to make arrangements to view one or more of these documents.

Frequently Requested Records

NIH Purchase Card List(MS
Excel - 524 KB) and Printer-friendly
version(PDF
- 940 KB)
This list will be updated the first week of each month. PLEASE
NOTE: Many of the individuals on this list are scientists engaged
in research. Many consider it very disruptive to their work to
receive telephone solicitations or unannounced office visits.
Please respect their need to work without interruption when marketing
your products. Thank you.

Reference Guide

Description of Publicly Available Information

The NIH has a wealth of information available to the public both
in printed form and electronically. Each of NIH's separate Institutes
and Centers maintains it's own list of publications and this information
can be accessed from their Home Pages. A list of the components is
available. If you do not know which component has information of
the subject you are interested in, you may run a search from
the NIH Home Page.

U.S. Superintendent
of Documents
All documents at the U.S. Superintendent of Documents are shelved
by government organization and not by subject matter. The documents
include information about U.S. Government laws, regulations,
statistics, maps, and bibliographies.
Records that are "promptly published and offered for sale" are
not subject to the requirements of FOIA, 5 U.S.C. 552(a) (2).
These published materials are not required to be placed in agency
conventional/electronic reading rooms.

Major Information Systems

MEDLINE:
This database of more than 12 million references to articles
published in 4600 biomedical journals is maintained by the National
Library of Medicine and may be accessed free of charge on the
World Wide Web. Two Web-based products, PubMed and the NLM Gateway
provide this access.

CRISP:
This is a searchable database of federally funded biomedical
research projects conducted at universities, hospitals, and other
research institutions. The database is maintained by the Office
of Extramural Research at the National Institutes of Health.

PubMed:
This is a comprehensive database of article titles and abstracts.

NLM
Gateway: The NLM Gateway allows users to search
in multiple retrieval systems at the U.S. National Library
of Medicine (NLM.)